This bird is about the size of a turkey. The head and neck are bare of feathers, and of a reddish color, and the sides of the head warted like those of the turkey. The whole plumage is a brownish black, with a purple and greenish gloss in different directions.

This species is well known throughout the United States, but is most numerous in the southern section of the Union. In the northern and middle states, it is partially migratory, the greater part retiring to the south on the approach of cold weather. But numbers remain all the winter in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey; particularly in the vicinity of the large rivers and the ocean, which afford a supply of food at all seasons. The female lays from two to four eggs in an old hollow tree or stump. If any one approach the young, and attempt to handle them, they will immediately vomit such offensive matter as to compel the intruder to a precipitate

retreat.

The turkey buzzards are gregarious, peaceable, and harmless; never offering any violence to a living animal, nor depriving the husbandman of his stock. Hence, though in consequence of their filthy habits they are not beloved, yet they are respected for their usefulness; and in the southern states where they are most needed, they, as well as the black vultures, are protected by a law, which imposes a fine on those who wilfully deprive them of life. They generally roost in flocks on the limbs of large trees; and they may be seen on a summer's morning, spreading out their wings to the rising sun, and remaining in that posture for a considerable time.

The sense of smell in the turkey buzzard is astonishingly exquisite, and they never fail to discover carrion, even when at the distance of several miles. When once they have found a carcass, if not molested, they will remain in the place till the whole is devoured. At such times, they eat so immoderately that frequently they are incapable of rising, and may be caught without difficulty; but few that are acquainted with them, will have the temerity to undertake the task. A man in the state of Delaware some years since, observing some turkey buzzards regaling themselves upon the carcass of a horse, which was in a highly putrid state, conceived the design of making a captive of one, to take home for the amusement of his children. He cautiously approached, and springing upon the unsuspecting group, grasped a fine plump fellow in his arms, and was bearing off his prize in triumph; when lo! the indignant vulture disgorged such a torrent of filth in the face of our hero, that it produced all the effects of the most powerful emetic, and forever cured him of his inclination for turkey buzzards.

On the continent of America this species inhabits a vast range of territory, running it is said from Nova Scotia to Terra del Fuego, though it is comparatively rare in the northern states of the Union. They are numerous in the West India islands.

THIS bird has sometimes been confounded with the turkey buzzard. But they are much darker in their plumage than the latter, and never associate with them. Their mode of flight also differ from that of the turkey buzzard. The latter, though found in the vicinity of towns, rarely ventures within them. It is not so impatient of cold as the former, and is likewise less lazy. Unless pressed by hunger, it will not eat of a carcass until it becomes putrid. The black vulture is not so fastidious, but devours animal food without distinction. They are very indolent, and may be seen loitering. for hours together in one place. It is said that they sometimes attack young pigs, and eat off their ears and tails; but those instances are rare.

In the towns and villages of the southern states, they may be seen sauntering about the streets; sunning themselves on the roofs of the houses and the fences; or, if the weather be cold, cowering around the tops of the chimneys to enjoy the benefit of the heat, which to them is a peculiar gratification. They are protected by law or usage; and may be said to be completely domesticated, being as common as the domestic poultry, and equally familiar. The inhabitants generally are disgusted with their filthy habits; but notwithstanding, being viewed as contributing to the removal of the dead animal matter, which, if permitted to putrefy during the hot season, would render the atmosphere impure, they have a respect paid them as scavengers, whose labors are subservient to the public good. It sometimes happens that after having gorged themselves, these birds vomit down the chimneys, which must be intolerably disgusting, and must provoke the illwill of those whose hospitality is thus requited.

The black vulture is seldom found on the Atlantic, to the northward of Newbern, North Carolina; but inhabits the whole continent to the southward as far as Cape Horn.

In its attitudes this bird resembles the eagles more than the vultures, its confident and sprightly bearing strongly contrasting with the crouching and suspicious postures of the latter. Like these, however, it generally retains its wings in a state of half expansion when at rest, and its neck more or less retracted within its shoulders. Its food, as we shall presently see, is more frequently sought in a living prey than on a putrefying carcass; and for this reason it is not often found, like the vultures, assembling in considerable troops. The increased curvature of its talons also contributes to the same object, by enabling it to carry off its prey, whether living or dead. A careful comparison of their characters, or, what is far better, of the animals themselves, as they exist side by side in the menagerie, will show how nearly this bird holds the middle station between the two large groups to which it is almost equally related.

Several nominal species were created by the naturalists on the close of the last century, which appear now, by common consent, to have been merged into one, the bearded vulture of ornithologists, or lammergeyer of the Swiss and German Alps. Its range extends to most of the principal mountain chains of the Old Continent, as it is found, with more or less fre

1 Gypatus barbatus, Cuv. The genus Gypatus has a long bill; upper mandible arched towards the point, and bent like a hook; nostrils oval, covered with stiff hairs directed forward; feet short; four toes, the three anterior united by a short membrane, the middle one very long; nails slightly crooked; wings long.

quency, but never in great abundance, in the Pyrenees, the Alps from Piedmont to Dalmatia, the mountains of Ghilan and Siberia, and those of Egypt and Abyssinia; occupying every where the loftiest and most inaccessible cliffs, and frequently committing dreadful ravages in the neighboring plains. In size it is the largest of European birds of prey, measuring, when fully grown, upwards of four feet from beak to tail, and in the expanse of its wings no less than nine or ten. M. Fortis indeed asserts that he had seen an individual in Dalmatia, the expanded wings of which measured twelve feet. The general color of the upper part of this remarkable bird is a dull brown with a mixture of gray; its wings and tail are of a grayish ash color; the upper part of its head is a dirty white; a black band extends backwards from the base of the beak across the eye, and joins a narrower stripe of the same that passes upwards to unite with its fellow on the back of the head; and the neck, breast, and under parts are white with a shade of reddish brown or orange, which is deeper on the breast and throat, and gradually becomes less distinct on the abdomen and legs. For the first two years, the young birds are distinguished by the dusky brown of the head and neck; the mottled gray of their under surfaces, the large white spots, or spots of a lighter shade, scattered over their back and wings; and the dusky black of their quill feathers. Their iris is at first brown, and their toes of a livid color; but as they advance in age the former becomes of a bright red, and the latter assume a leaden hue. At all times the beak, which attains a length of four inches, is of an ashy gray with a flesh colored tinge; and te bristles at its base are deep black, as are also the talons.

In its habits this bird combines, the audacity and cruelty of the eagles, with the appetite for carrion which distinguishes the vultures. It seizes by preference living victims, chiefly quadrupeds, and especially those which are incapable of making an effectual resistance, such as rabbits, hares, sheep and lambs, or even young goats and calves; and thus proves an extremely dangerous neighbor to the peaceful flocks which graze on the declivities of the mountains inhabited by it, or in the intervening valleys. Sometimes, when rendered desperate by a long fast, it is said to attack the chamois, or even man himself, choosing for the scene of its exploits the brink of a precipice, and descending upon its victim with such an irresistible impetus as to precipitate him headlong into the abyss below. But such bold attempts as this, although spoken of by many writers, are foreign to its usual habits, and may rather be regarded as traditions handed down from generation to generation, than as common or every day occurrences. In the same manner it is probable that the stories current in the Alps, of children carried off by vultures to be devoured, are rather the expression of a natural dread of what might happen, than a relation of actual events. We are not aware of any authentic testimony in proof of the fact, which may therefore be classed with the narratives of the same description with reference to the condor.

It is from the character in which it is best known to them, as the spoiler of the fold, that this bird has received from the natives of the German Alps its title of lammergeyer, the lamb vulture. But although this is its food of choice, it feeds also upon carrion; and as when in pursuit of a living prey, it emulates the eagles by soaring alone or in company only with its mate, so in its attack upon an unburied carcass it imitates the vultures by congregating in bands upon the spoil. In such circumstances it does not usually descend from aloft, but sweeps slowly along the ground towards its expected banquet. Bruce relates, in his Abyssinian Travels, a remarkable instance, illustrative at once of its boldness and voracity. His servants were preparing for dinner on the summit of a lofty mountain, when a bearded vulture, attracted by the smell of the goat's flesh, which they were cooking, slowly made his advances towards the party, and at length fairly seated himself within the ring which they had formed. The affrighted natives started up and ran for their lances and shields; and the bird, after an ineffectual attempt to extract a portion of their meat from the boiling water, seized a large piece in each of his talons from a platter that stood by, and carried it off slowly along the ground as he came. After an interval of a few minutes, the vulture returned for a second freight, but was shot by the traveller before it could carry its purpose into effect. The manner of its flight in this instance, as well as in many others, may be taken as an indication that this species does not usually make its prey of birds, which it is rarely if ever known to attack.

Bruce remarks that on taking hold of this bird he was not a little surprised to find his hands covered with a yellow powder, which appeared to be produced from the breast feathers; while those of the back and wings threw off a similar dust, excepting that on them it was brown. He imagined that this powder was contained in the tubes of the feathers, from which it was emitted upon pressure; and that it was a peculiar provision of nature to enable the birds of those Alpine regions to withstand the rigors of the climate. It is more probable, however, that this appearance, which has not been noticed by any other writer, was merely the result of the change of plumage which the vulture, had just undergone; the powder in question being in reality nothing more than the original pellicle of the feathers separating from them in minute particles, as is usual when they have obtained their perfect growth.